Thailand will re-submit a request to register the Kaeng Krachan National Park as a world heritage site after a Unesco committee asked it to seek the views of ethnic Karen residents in the area first.

Since 2011, Thailand has been trying to get Unesco to designate the Kaeng Krachan Natural Park in Phetchaburi province as a world heritage site. Myanmar objects, insisting that about one-third of the land included in Thailand’s claim -- amounting to almost 1,000 square kilometres -- is in fact part of Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region.

The world body was supposed to have resolved the issue at its meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, last July, but its deliberations were interrupted by the abortive military coup that erupted there. The matter was postponed until this week’s meeting in Paris.

U Than Zaw Oo, director of the Myanmar branch of the World Heritage Site committee, said on Thursday that Thailand had accepted the 21-member committee’s decision and would re-submit its application.

“In the past, the committee focused on the zoning issue, but at this meeting they also considered the claims of ethnic Kayin residents of the area. Thailand will now consult the Kayin and take their views into account,” he said.

Thailand is expected to submit revised plans for the proposed park at the committee’s meeting next year, and a decision could be made the following year.

"Once again, the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation's bid to register part of Kaeng Krachan National Park as a world heritage site has been turned down. The Unesco World Heritage Committee continues to inform Thai governments of major problems inside the nation's largest national park. Governments continually refuse to fix them.".....

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